Abu Dio della Vegetazione
The Anthropological Primacy of the Sacred
Abu, God of Plant Life - Etruscan Corner
For ancient people, the rhythm that governed their lives was cyclical, repetitive, and a reflection of the divine universe, a mythical world belonging to the sacred sphere. In his book, The Myth of the Eternal Return, Mircea Eliade analyzes this correspondence with the divine world that has existed in the traditions of various human civilizations. For Eliade, the religious, and even more so the mystical, factor is the key to understanding the essence of humanity. He states that, from art to architecture, every construction was conceived as an attempt to mirror the celestial plans of the divine universe.
The very foundation of a city was seen as a symbolic act of divine creation, where the center of the building was consecrated through a specific rite that nevertheless had a divine origin, deriving from a first act performed by ancestors, ancient heroes, or God himself. In the 20th century, Mircea Eliade remained a strong advocate of the profound value of archaic existence and the primacy of the sacred over every aspect of human life.
The "sacred" is an element in the structure of consciousness, not a stage in the history of consciousness itself. At the most archaic levels of culture, living as a human being is in and of itself a religious act, since food, sex, and work have sacred value.
Ziggurat of Uruk (20th-10th century BC
Abu God of Plant Life
Artificial Sacred Mountains
The Mesopotamian landscape was dotted with imposing quadrangular tower-like buildings, the ziggurats, true sacred artificial mountains: this is the meaning of the term ziggurat. They represent communication between the human and divine worlds.
Built with unbaked bricks covered with baked bricks, sometimes interspersed with reeds, and then dried in the sun, they are complex structures, constructed with techniques unknown to Europeans, immersed in a prehistoric era. The Ziggurat of Uruk (20th-10th century BC) is the one that has best resisted the erosion of time. Dedicated to the goddess Inanna (Istar), it is part of the Eanna, the sanctuary dedicated to the god Anu.
In his Treatise on the History of Religions, Mircea Eliade clarifies the symbolic and religious significance of Ziggurats:
The Sumerian term for Ziggurat is U-Nir (mountain), which Jastrow interprets as 'visible from a great distance.' The ziggurat was, properly speaking, a 'cosmic mountain,' that is, a symbolic image of the Cosmos; Its seven levels represented the seven planetary heavens (as at Borsippa) or were colored in the world (as at Ur).
Mesopotamian iconography retains some characteristics intact, the principal one being the connection of every art form to religious ritual: man was absolutely dependent on the will of the deities.
The Sanctuaries in Mesopotamia
Between 1929 and 1937, Henri Frankfort, a Dutch archaeologist and director of the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago, conducted excavations in Mesopotamia.
In the Diyāla region (middle Tigris, 32 km northeast of Baghdad), excavations at Tell Asmar, the modern name for Eshnunna, revealed that the site was occupied well before 3000 BC. The excavations revealed the Eanna, the Sanctuary, a complex of large buildings connected by open spaces and porticoes, a single monumental complex where economic, administrative, and religious activities took place simultaneously.
Here, excavations uncovered the Square Temple of the god Abu (2750-2600 BC), one of the minor gods of Sumerian mythology, whose name means Father of Plants and Vegetation.
The Square Temple of Abu features a central courtyard surrounded by smaller rooms and courtyards that, after a latitudinal room, lead to the transverse cult chamber with its entrance on the long side. – Tell Asmar (Eshnunna), Early Dynastic period, 2700 BCE
Abu, God of Plant Life
Twelve statuettes were found under the altar, displaying remarkable stylistic features, such as enormous eyes and clasped hands. They are considered votive objects because they repeat the iconographic scheme of the worshipper in prayer with their hands folded.
Tell Asmar Prayer Group
Abu, God of Plant Life
The Tell Asmar Prayer Statues
This group of statuettes, known as the Tell Asmar Prayer Group, depicts 12 human figures standing with their hands folded, in what Western scholars believe to be a typical prayer position. The Tell Asmar statuettes date to between 2900 and 2500 BCE and range in height from 21 cm to 72 cm.
Of the twelve statues, ten represent male individuals and two female individuals. Eight of the figures are made of plaster, two of limestone, and the smallest of alabaster. Some statues bear a name and a personalized prayer message, indicating that the statues were surrogates for real people.
Abu, God of Plant Life
A Cup in the Hands
The rare discovery at Tell Asmar of this cache of buried statuettes has revealed the image of the god Abu, identified by his emblem at the base of one of the statues.
The god, with his immense, all-seeing eyes, must have instilled respectful awe. The greatest emphasis, however, is on the arms, with pointed elbows and raised, clasped hands, and the fixed gaze of the enormous eyes directed toward infinity. The upward movement of the hands epitomizes the spiritual concentration of prayer, while the cups held by some statuettes refer to ritual patterns.
In particular, the largest figure representing the god Abu holds a cup with flared edges. These highly valuable objects could have been held by kings or deities. (Iranian Bronze Age Metal Vases by Gloria M. Bellelli) Some scholars go further, believing that the cup held in the hands of the god Abu represents an archaic Holy Grail, symbolizing a bloodline created by the gods of the Anunnaki with the humans of Earth.
Green Chlorite Vase found in Shahdad, Iran
Abu God of Plant Life
Why dedicate a Temple to the God of Plant Life?
The god Abu was the father of plants and vegetation and, more broadly, of fertility. Once again, we find plants assimilated to the concept of life and fertility, where the tree is one of the great myths of tradition, and the founding texts of the great religions place a tree at the beginning of the history of the human race. The very name Babylon is evocative: in ancient times, the city was also known as Tintir, meaning Forest of Life.
These lands, known as the Fertile Crescent, encompassing Iran, Iraq, and Syria, from the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea, are considered the Cradle of Civilization. These particularly rugged territories remain unquiet: the ancient sites were extensively raided by the first European archaeologists, then drilled for oil and pipelines, and finally occupied by international armies, amid violence and vandalism.
The Baghdad Museum is one of the most important museums in the world and preserves the fundamental archaeological heritage of three great cultures: Sumer, Babylon, and Assyria. The great reliefs of the Assyrian Hall, the works of southern Iraq, finds from legendary places linked to the birth of man, the site of Ur: much has been stolen, and the thefts were mostly commissioned by unknown collectors.
